Juniors enjoy medal success at the Hampshire Open
WHILE the senior players were in Rhodes at the Island Games winning medals and putting forward judo as one of the sports to be considered as essential for inclusion in future IGA events, the junior squad were also competing off-island, at the Hampshire Open.
WHILE the senior players were in Rhodes at the Island Games winning medals and putting forward judo as one of the sports to be considered as essential for inclusion in future IGA events, the junior squad were also competing off-island, at the Hampshire Open. While they could not match Roberto Mascherucci's magnificent gold, they managed to return from the Mountbatten Sports Centre in Portsmouth with three silver and three bronze medals between them.
The day started well with nine-year-old Laurence Plevin winning two of his four contests in good style to claim bronze in the under 30 kilos for boys under 10 years. Plevin is showing tremendous potential and revels in competition at this very high level.
Next up in the under 38 kilos was eight-year-old Ben Dumont, who was competing for the first time at a UK event but he was undaunted by the occasion and came home clutching a well deserved silver medal.
The most highly contested weight group for junior boys was the under-50-kilos category in which James Taylor had been entered.
His first contest was against a four times national champion and his second was versus another national squad player, who is graded as a brown belt.
Taylor put up stout resistance, managing to escape from a hold in the last second, but both opponents were far too experienced and the outcome went to form.
Sam Fox competed at under 73 kilos where all his opponents were higher graded than him.
Nevertheless, he managed to pull off an excellent win in his third bout and although narrowly missing out on the silver medal, he was very happy to be awarded a bronze.
The heaviest weight categories of under 81 and over 81 kilos were combined to make up a group of three under-16 competitors.
Guernsey Judo Club member John Fernandez surprised even himself by gaining a magnificent win in his second fight against a much heavier opponent to earn yet another silver medal for his club.
There were two senior members entered in the men's open category and under 73 and under 81 kilos, namely Paul Renyard and Adrian Carre, but the level of competition was much higher than expected, with more national squad players entered than last year, and both the Guernsey Judo Club representatives found the going very tough and failed to gain any wins.
However, both were also entered in the veterans (over 35) and found the standard more to their liking, with each winning his second bout of the day but then they had to fight each other for the silver and bronze medals.
Renyard demonstrated his rapid improvement in the sport since making his return to the mat and managed to gain the upper hand, winning by two wazaris making a full point.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the day was Carre's excellent bout against a very experienced second dan (black belt) who was very fortunate to survive the Sarnian's determined and aggressive style for the whole five minutes of normal time. It then went to a golden score.
Unfortunately for Carre, the more experienced player was able to make the first winning score.
It was a highly successful day and with Claire Renyard continuing to gain experience of working at the officials' table at such a high level of tournament, Guernsey judo will soon be at a standard where they can invite UK clubs to bring teams over for inter-club competitions provided that sufficient sponsors can be found to support the club's hopes and ambitions for its junior members.
